Improving healthcare provider well-being and reducing burnout is a focus of many patient safety efforts. This narrative review highlights research into well-being and burnout in community pharmacists, a segment of the healthcare workforce that was experiencing high rates of stress even before the pandemic. Despite many studies measuring community pharmacist burnout, there were no studies identified into interventions or strategies to improve well-being or reduce burnout.

Pharmacy dispensing errors continue to be a source of preventable harm. Based on a systematic review of 62 studies, these authors report a global pooled prevalence of medication dispensing errors of 1.6% (range, 0-33%) across community, hospital, and other pharmacy settings.

E-prescribing is common and has improved many patient outcomes, but is not without risks. In this review, 35 studies on the safety of e-prescribing in community settings were identified. Most studies reported on error rates and were descriptive in nature; only five reported patient health outcomes. The authors recommend additional research on interventions to improve e-prescribing safety.

Community pharmacists are perhaps the last line of defense in preventing medication errors in the outpatient setting; therefore, ensuring a strong safety culture is critical. This review identified 11 studies reporting on safety culture using the AHRQ Community Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Pharmacists and pharmacy staff rated overall patient safety highly, but more than half identified workload as a concern.

Medication safety in inpatient and outpatient settings is a major focus of patient safety efforts. This review included 79 studies on epidemiology, etiology, or interventions related to psychiatric medication safety in primary care (e.g., general practice, community pharmacy, long-term care). Most studies focused on older adults and potentially inappropriate prescribing. The authors recommend future research on wider age groups and underrepresented mental health diagnosis, such as attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Community-based pharmacists have a critical role in ensuring medication safety in community settings. In this narrative review, the authors explored how collaboration between community-based pharmacists and primary care providers can improve medication safety. The most common collaboration strategy was medication review. The authors identified barriers to collaboration from both the primary care provider and pharmacist perspectives.

Natural disasters and other public health emergencies (PHE), such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can dramatically change the delivery of healthcare. This scoping review identified considerable research examining the relationship between public health emergencies and disruptions to personal medication practices (e.g., self-altering medication regimens, access barriers, changing prescribing providers) and subsequent medication-related harm.

Tablet-splitting may introduce patient safety risks, such as unpredictable dosing. This systematic review and qualitative synthesis did not identify substantive evidence to support tablet-splitting concerns, with the exception of sustained-release tablets and use by older adults who may struggle to split tablets due to physical limitations.

Clear communication regarding medication indications can improve patient safety. This scoping review explored how including the indication on a prescription may impact prescribing practice. Studies suggest that including the indication can help identify errors, support communication, and improve patient safety, but prescribers noted concerns about impacts on workflow and patient privacy.

The growing use of telehealth can increase patient access to timely care, but also presents patient safety considerations. The use of telehealth to deliver health care services continues to expand. This systematic review included six studies examining safety and quality issues in community pharmacy-based telepharmacy services. Findings suggest that telepharmacies perform similarly or slightly better than traditional pharmacies in terms of medication safety and adherence, but the authors note a high risk of bias amongst the studies which limits the ability to draw definitive conclusions about patient safety and quality-related outcomes.

Older adults are at increased risk of medicine self-administration errors (MSEs) due to polypharmacy, cognitive decline, and decline in physical abilities. In this review, incorrect dosing was the most common MSE; the most common factor influencing the errors is complex medication regimens due to the need for multiple medications. Additional research is needed into how community pharmacists can assist older adults at risk of MSE.

Pharmacist-led medication reconciliation after hospital discharge has been found to reduce medication discrepancies, but its effect on subsequent healthcare utilization is not clear.In this evidence synthesis, the authors explored the reasons why pharmacist-led medication reconciliation after hospital discharge succeeds or fails. The authors found that medication reconciliation resulting in beneficial outcomes was performed in accordance with patient preferences, promoted coordination and collaboration between healthcare professionals, and established trust between patients and providers.

Polypharmacy among older patients can increase the risk of adverse drug events. In this meta-analysis, researchers found that medication reviews performed by community pharmacists among older patients with polypharmacy reduced the risk of emergency department visits.

This systematic review found that pharmacist-led medication reconciliation after hospital discharge reduced medication discrepancies. However, the pooled studies did not demonstrate changes in the readmission rate or emergency department visits following medication reconciliation. The authors suggest further research is needed to determine the effect of medication discrepancies on patient safety.

This review discusses concerns associated with e-prescribing and recommends that human factors engineering can help improve its use in primary care and community pharmacies.

The authors analyzed the literature and found that preventable adverse drug events (PADEs) were common in ambulatory care and often resulted in the hospitalization of patients.

The authors reviewed the literature on computerized physician order entry (CPOE) in the outpatient setting and found little evidence that CPOE enhances the safety of medication administration in this setting.